Texans are 5.5-point underdogs in Seattle

The Texans return from a bye and face a Seattle Seahawks team limping on defense. Pass rushers Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett are on the shelf and that forced them to bring in the likes of Dwight Freeney for possible help. After trading for Sheldon Richardson the defense was supposed to be awesome but injuries have hit hard.

The Texans get maybe the biggest late addition in the NFL as Duane Brown ended his holdout and joined the team this last week and is on schedule to play. This will be a big addition to a running game that has gone over 120 yards in each of the last three games, including a whopping 173 against the Titans. The running game has become Watson’s best friend and has given the ability to take deep shots to an improved Will Fuller deep down the field.

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The Texans are 4-1 ATS in the last five games and have gone OVER in those games as well. This can be added to the lore of Deshaun Watson becoming the main man under center. Their record versus the Seahawks in the last three games hasn’t been as friendly. They are 1-2 head to head and 1-2 ATS. The Texans offense during those three games has averaged 384 yards to 337 for the Seahawks while dominating the passing yardage at 283 to 150. The last three games have seen the average score to be 24 to 21.33 in favor of Seattle.

The Seahawks are 4-1 SU (Straight Up) in the last five games and have hit the UNDER in four of the last seven. In what has been the norm in the Pete Carroll era, they have dominated at home by going 5-2 ATS in the last seven and 10-1 SU in the last 11 games.

The Texans will need to be able to run the game and get the safeties for the Seattle playing downhill to open up the deep shots versus a defense that is known to give up a couple shots a game. Expect the Texans to keep using an up-tempo offense to keep the Seahawks from subbing a thin defensive line and run more base Cover 3, which they have gone away from some this year.

The Houston defense will need to be good on the back end as the Seahawks are leaning more on Wilson each game this season. It is only a matter of time before they start to speed up the offense to showcase Wilson more.